Hyalex Orthopaedics Raises $33 Million

Hyalex Orthopaedics Inc., makers of a polymer system meant to mimic cartilage, has raised $33 million in Series A funding. The company, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, has a regenerative technology known as HYALEX technology.

New investors Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners and DSM Venturing, the venture arm of Royal DSM, joined existing investors Canaan, Osage University Partners and Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc.

As part of the agreement, Brad Vale, Ph.D., D.V.M. General Partner at Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners, will join the board.

“We are pleased by the enthusiastic response from leading investors and their shared vision to address the enormous patient problem of cartilage injury and disease,” said President and CEO Mira Sahney. “The funding will support the development of our synthetic cartilage technology platform, which we are eager to deliver to the clinic. Brad Vale will be a valuable partner on our board.”

According to Mike Hawkins, Ph.D., Hyalex board member and retired VP of Corporate Research at Zimmer, “HYALEX is a platform technology which has the potential to transform patient care by addressing a wide range of cartilage lesions and providing an upstream opportunity in the care continuum prior to conventional total joint replacement surgery.”

“Mudit Jain and I founded Strategic Healthcare Investment Partners in 2018 to be able to invest in companies like Hyalex where high quality teams are pursuing big opportunities that can significantly improve patient quality of life and preserve future treatment options,” Brad Vale commented.

Mira Sahney told OTW, “The Hyalex board will benefit from Dr. Vale’s deep and diverse experience in the industry. As an investor in medical devices for more than 25 years, he has broad sector knowledge through multiple business cycles. His background also includes various research and development roles at Johnson & Johnson, after earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering. We are eager to leverage Dr. Vale’s expertise to address the enormous patient problem of cartilage injury and disease.”

Asked to elaborate on the use of funds to develop the company’s synthetic cartilage platform, Sahney commented to OTW, “This involves execution on longer term pre-clinical studies involving our proprietary material platform as well as testing complete products in functional simulators, a scale up of operations to support clinical studies, and the initial first-in-human clinical work.”